Bittersweet Hope
by vulnerable88
Summary: A two-shot based on the promos for the fall premiere. Emmett knows he messed up, but he's determined to get back what he wants most: Bay.
1. Chapter 1

A.N. Hi, everyone! I know I haven't updated or written anything in a while, but I just couldn't stay away once I saw all the new SAB promos! The first chapter is just a quick recap of most of what happened in the last few episodes between Bay & Emmett, and the second chapter is stuff I made up based on scenes from the promos! Hope you enjoy! As usual, I don't own any of the characters…

Emmett hated this. He hated this whole situation and he hated himself. He couldn't believe that he had something so monumentally stupid and that it had cost him so much.

When he woke up the morning after he had slept with Simone, the guilt had hit him like a ton of bricks. The guilt increased with each passing second, as Daphne came to speak to Simone, as he hid so that Daphne wouldn't see him, as he tried to communicate with Simone… That last one was, ironically, the real clincher. It was when he was trying to and failing to communicate with Simone that he realized he had just cheated on the best person he knew, the person who had learned another language to be with him, the person who had been there for him and was trying with all of her might to help him during a difficult time.

He snuck out the door and stopped to put his shoes on in the hall. It was then that he decided he'd make this up to Bay. He wouldn't tell her about this; no, that wasn't an option. He was not going to lose Bay over one incredibly stupid mistake. Instead, he'd go and apologize to her for getting upset at her the night before and then he'd be the best boyfriend in the world.

When Bay accepted his apology for his misplaced anger the previous night, he thought his plan was working fine. He wanted his upcoming birthday to be special for the two of them; he didn't need anybody else celebrating with him, just her.

As an amazing birthday present, though, Daphne and Bay decided to make a movie for his birthday. It was pretty awesome until Toby approached with Bay. One second, Emmett was making out with his girlfriend; the next, he was faced with the girl he had cheated on his girlfriend with, and her boyfriend, who was his girlfriend's brother.

He tried to get Simone to leave. If there was one person he definitely did NOT want around, it was Simone. The longer she hung around, the more time it gave Bay to suspect something, right? Little did he suspect, but it wasn't Bay he had to worry about; it was Wilke. Emmett realized the second that Wilke knew. He saw the disgust in the other boy's eyes and despite the fact that Wilke wasn't Emmett's favorite person in the world, he felt a bit of camaraderie with him at that point. Emmett also felt disgust at his actions.

As time passed and Wilke didn't say anything, Emmett started to feel a little better. After all, he was doing exactly what he'd promised himself he'd do. He had apologized to Bay and had been devoted to her ever since that horrible night that he never wanted to think about again. Prom would be amazing! Every time Emmett thought about Bay's face when he had "proposed" going to the Carlton prom together, he grinned. Bay's face!

Bay looked beautiful when he picked her up. Going to see Angelo hadn't been easy for her and she'd been upset after; she didn't let that deter her, though! She was determined to go to the prom and Emmett was ecstatic at going with her and being able to show her off. They danced, they joked, they drank punch and ate cookies. The night was going great. Once Daphne pulled him aside, though, and confronted him about sleeping with Simone, his night went downhill fast. He knew he had to tell Bay the truth. When he went back inside to see her, she was dancing and looked like she was having a great time. He spent a moment just looking at her, scared it would be the last time he'd see her that happy for a while. When he caught her eye, he gestured for her to come outside.

Telling her the truth about cheating on her had to be the hardest thing that Emmett had ever done. The look in her eyes, the incredulity on her face, the heartbreak written all over her. When she pulled away from him, he grabbed her, wanting to bring her back into his arms and hug her tight, not let her go until she forgave him. He knew he couldn't do that, though, and when she demanded that he let her go, he did.

He sat on the bench for a few minutes more before deciding it was useless; he might as well go home. He was sure that Bay had found some other way home already. Maybe she'd called John and Kathryn or maybe just Regina to pick her up. Emmett walked dejectedly back to his bike and his heart dropped even more when he saw that the helmet he had gotten and designed just for Bay was gone. He wasn't stupid; he knew she hadn't taken it along with her as a keepsake. It was probably located in a garbage can somewhere or at the bottom of the lake by now.

_Prom night. Yippee_, Emmett thought sarcastically.


	2. Chapter 2

A.N. Ok, here's the second chapter, most of which is made up. However, some things are taken from the promos. For those of you who are hardcore Emmett-Bay SAB fans, you'll know which stuff is made up and which stuff is taken! :-D

It'd been the hardest 3 ½ months of Emmett's life. At his last count, he'd sent Bay 113 texts, 49 emails, and tried video calling her at least twice a week… and he'd sent at least 18 more texts and 12 more emails since then. To no avail, though; she'd shut him out. He'd found out from Daphne that Bay had gone away for the summer. Apparently she'd been offered a spot in an art summer program and had decided to accept the offer.

The thing was, he didn't know much more than that because his friendship with Daphne had also suffered from his monumentally stupid mistake. She'd return his texts sometimes, but had avoided him for most of the summer. The only reason she had told him what was going on with Bay was because he had seen her at the store and had grabbed her, telling her he wouldn't let her go until she gave him info on Bay. She had reluctantly provided him with the summer information, but had fled before he could get anything else out of her.

He wasn't going to take this lying down, though. He wanted to know when Bay would be back. He was determined to get to talk to her, one way or another. Fortunately for him, he had memorized Daphne's work schedule at the carwash before the whole Simone-Emmett thing had made a mess of things, so he knew what time he could go and confront Daphne when John wouldn't be around. Emmett was desperate for information, but he wanted to live to use the information and he was sure that John wouldn't allow him to live if he saw him at the carwash. That whole _you hurt my little girl, I'll hurt you _thing and all.

Sure enough, when Emmett arrived at the carwash at 1:15 on Monday afternoon, 2 weeks before school was scheduled to start again, Daphne was there and John wasn't.

"What are you doing here?" Daphne signed furiously. "John'll kill you if he sees you here."

"I need to know when Bay is going to be back," Emmett said, cutting to the chase.

She looked at him like he'd grown horns. "I'm not going to tell you! If Bay wanted you to know, she'd have let you know and responded to one of your hundreds of texts!"

"So she's been talking to you about me!" Emmett exclaimed. It was a small victory, but he'd take what he could get.

Daphne sighed in frustration. "Emmett, you've got to give her space."

"Space?! I haven't seen her or spoken to her in 3 ½ months! How much more space can I give?!" His signs were broad and jerky.

Emmett noticed movement out of the corner of his eye. A customer was gesturing at his car with increasing excitement. He saw Daphne follow his gaze to the customer. She checked her watch.

"Emmett, you really should go. John is going to be back in a couple of minutes," she said.

"Tell me when Bay is going to be back and I'll leave. John will never know I was here," he wheedled.

Daphne sighed again. "She's coming back tomorrow, mid-morning."

A grin broke out on his face. "Thanks, Daphne! You're the best!" He punched her on the shoulder playfully and walked away, ignoring the annoyed look on her face.

_**Bay**__ is going to be back tomorrow. Bay is going to be back __**tomorrow. Bay**__ is going to be back __**tomorrow**__. _

He couldn't wait. The day seemed to drag on and Emmett had never been so eager to get to bed before. It reminded him of when he was younger and used to hate to go to bed Christmas Eve. His mother would tell him, "The sooner you get to bed, the sooner you can wake up and it'll be morning and time to unwrap presents!"

Despite the fact that it was only 12:00, Emmett got into bed. It took only half an hour to fall asleep, which wasn't so bad, considering. His dreams were full of Bay, getting back together with Bay, hanging out with Bay, riding in The Thing with Bay, kissing Bay, more than kissing Bay…

He woke up 7:00 a.m., but forced himself to go back to sleep for a couple of hours. When he woke up again at 9:15, he hopped out of bed, showered, and then spent more time picking out his clothes than he would ever admit to anyone. He chose a green t-shirt Bay had once commented on and clean jeans. He wanted to look good without looking like he was trying too hard. This could possibly be one of the most important days of his life.

At 11:15, he sent a text to Bay.

_Welcome back! I rly need 2 talk 2 u. Meet me at the bridge 2nite at 8. I love you Bay. –E_

It was a bit sappier than he would've ever been comfortable with 6 months ago, but now it felt necessary.

He didn't hear back from her, which didn't surprise him, but still managed to leave him with a feeling of disappointment.

Eight o'clock seemed really far away. Emmett spent the time busying himself with other small tasks such as cleaning up his room, organizing his pictures of Bay, and mentally going over and over in his head what he'd say to Bay if she when she showed. She was going to come to their spot, he just knew it.

Finally, it was 7:30. Emmett left a note for his mother who had gone grocery shopping and hopped on his bike. He arrived at 7:45. Fifteen minutes dragged on and on. Finally, 8 o'clock came.* She wasn't there.

_It's okay_, he reassured himself. _Even when things were good between us, she wasn't always exactly on time. She sometimes came 5 minutes late, remember? _

8:05 came and went.

So did 8:10.

And 8:15.

At 8:20, the feelings of despair and negativity which had been boiling deep under the surface, under his feelings of hope and promise, had erupted and covered over the positive feelings.

_Of course she wouldn't come. I broke her heart. I broke her trust. I cheated on her with her ex-best friend, her brother's girlfriend! What was I thinking… I'm going to have to live the rest of my life wondering what if…What if I hadn't cheated on her. _

He gazed out at the water, tears pricking at his eyes. Suddenly, beams of light hit his eyes. His heart rose two feet in his chest. He turned and recognized The Thing approaching.

_This is it, Bledsoe, _ he coached himself. _You can do this. Say what you feel, but don't come on too strong._

As Bay got out of the truck, Emmett thought his heart was going to leap out of his chest. He hadn't realized how good it would feel to see her after not seeing her for so long.

He smiled at her, a grin breaking out on his face. "You came," he said.

She didn't smile back. "If only to get you to stop texting and emailing me," she signed back.

His smile grew bigger. See that spirit? That's one of the first things he fell in love with.

"How was your summer?" he asked.

"Oh, cut it out, Emmett. Why did you want me to meet you here? What do you want?"

"I want you," he told her. "I want to explain myself and apologize until you tell me you'll forgive me. I want to be with you again."

She looked at him like he was nuts. "Emmett, you cheated on me with another girl! With _Simone_, of all people! That's not just going to go away with a few more apologies!"

All of that hope that had resurfaced once he saw the headlights was now sinking down into his toes again. "So then what can I do? Tell me what to do and I'll do it, Bay, I swear!" He reached for her hand, but she grabbed it away before he could take it. He grabbed her other hand. "Please, Bay," he signed, grasping her hand tightly, "give me another chance. I swear I won't mess up again this time."

She looked at him with a mixture of what looked like revulsion and pity…and maybe, was that a drop of understanding?

"I don't know if there's one or two things you can do that'll help it, Emmett. This may just be one of those things you just can't fix."

He refused to take that. "No."

She looked at him, confused. "No? What do you mean, no?"

"No, this _can _be fixed. Remember when we standing on this very spot, and you asked me if I was with you, if I was all in? You listed all of the stuff we'd been through together and survived, remember that? Well, I'm standing on the same spot and telling you we can fix this. We can get through this just like we got through the other stuff."

She gave a little laugh. "Emmett, I don't think-"

He didn't let her finish. "The Dicker Race is tomorrow. Meet me there at 11:45, ok?"

She looked even more confused. "Meet you where?"

"At the Dicker Race, you know where it is, right?"

Bay responded, "Of course, I do. My dad's carwash is one of the major sponsors. But I don't understand. Where do you want to meet me?"

Emmett thought. "Meet me near the picnic tables, ok? We'll hang out and you'll see."

Bay was getting more frustrated by the second. Clearly confusion was not a feeling she dealt well with.

"I'll see _what_?" she asked, exasperated.

"You'll see how good it is between us, how right it feels. I'll know that you're considering that, too, when I see you there, ok?"

"Emmett-" Bay started, but he didn't want to let her finish. He wanted to end on a positive note, with him setting up plans for the two of them. He brought her hand that he was still grasping up to his lips and kissed it gently.

"I'll see you there," he signed, and then got on his bike and went home.

The next morning dawned bright and clear. It was like a sign that today would be a good day. Emmett could feel it. He could feel that today would be a good day for him and Bay.

The hope that had gotten him through 3 ½ months of silence was threatening to overwhelm him. He couldn't wait to kiss Bay again, to sign with her, to let her know what was going on in his life… today would be the day that he could do that. They'd hang out together. Sure, conversation would be a little stilted at first, but eventually they'd chat like they used to and conversation would flow smoothly. Or maybe they'd just sit there in comfortable silence, leaning against each other, Bay's back against his front, their hands intertwined.

Emmett got to the meeting place at 11:20. The Dicker Race was a major community event. It had started 40 years before when Lenny Dicker had drunkenly bet that he could beat anyone in a car race. Three days later, the community had come out to see Lenny race against 5 other guys from the community. He was a good racer and had beat out all the other guys. Soon, it became a tradition that the week before Labor Day was the Dicker Race. It quickly became a major event with booths from various businesses, barbecue, and of course, the race. Lenny Dicker had passed away 9 years ago, but the race still continued, even though he had no living relatives to continue in the race instead of him. Yet the name of the race stuck.

Although Emmett had never participated in the race, his friend Jackson did and Emmett always came to support his friend and help with any car problems his friend might have that the pit crew had trouble with.

Emmett spent the 25 minutes before he was scheduled to meet Bay going to greet Jackson and wish him good luck, getting food for himself and Bay, and finding a table to sit down at. Bay was late again.

By 12:15, she still hadn't shown.

_She's not coming_, a voice in his head said. _She did you a favor last night, but there's no way she's going to come today._

_She __**will**__ come,_ another voice in his head said. _Remember, she was late last night, too, but she ended up coming! _

By 12:30, the second voice was noticeably quieter, yet Emmett remained seated, just in case. People were giving him dirty looks for taking up a table for so long, but he didn't care. He stared down at the red-and-white checkered tablecloth, pondering the pattern. Red square, white square, red square, white square, red square….

He looked up. Nope, still no Bay.

Red square, white square, red square, white square, red square, white square…

He looked up again, Still no Bay. It was 12:35 now.

The voice of hope inside him had stopped talking altogether by now. Hope was like that, you know? It got you all excited and happy, sure that something good was going to happen and that things would be fine. Except that when they weren't, what did you have to show for it? Nothing except for a bunch of disappointment. Hope was bittersweet in that way. Kept you going, but also made it that much harder when things didn't turn out the way you wanted them to.

Red square, white square, red square, white square, red square, white square…

He looked up again. Maybe..?

He craned his head, looking all around for that thick, curly black hair and pale skin.

He saw her. A smile broke out on his face and his hope woke up quicker than if someone poured ice water on a sleeping dog.

_She's here, she came. She's here, she came. She wants us back together again_, a mantra was dancing in his head.

Emmett stood up, a gigantic smile on his beaming face…a gigantic smile which faltered when he saw that she wasn't looking at him and didn't seem to be looking for him…

_No, there's a mistake. She's going to start looking around for me in a second. Right…now! _

Bay looked the way she had just come from.

_C'mon, Bay, I'm here, look for me, look __**at **__me! I'm here, Bay, here!_ He shouted in his head.

A big smile broke out on Bay's face, but it wasn't because she was looking in his direction. She was still looking in the direction from which she had just come. What was going on?

Emmett had a bad feeling about this. Whatever positive feelings he had had when he had woken up this morning had completely fled.

As Emmett saw a guy with dark hair approach from the direction in which Bay was looking, the feeling got worse. When Bay grabbed the guy by the arm, said something to him, and then laughed flirtatiously, Emmett thought he was going to throw up.

_No, this cannot be happening. This cannot be happening. Please let me wake up from this nightmare._

It was like watching a fist fight. You know what's going to happen and that it's not going to be pretty, but you can't turn away.

Emmett saw the guy pull Bay back toward him and swing his around her shoulders, leaning into her as she leaned into him.

What was going on here? This wasn't supposed to be happening. That was supposed to be _Emmett _doing those things with Bay!

He watched them as they sat down on a bench, sticking their legs out in front of them, intertwining her left leg with the guy's right leg¸ chatting while looking around.

_Oh, sure, Bay leaves me and finds a hearing guy to be with_, an extremely bitter voice inside him whispered.

_No, I refuse to let this happen. This is not what I think. Maybe he's a cousin? _Another voice, a more desperate voice, inside him said.

He stalked over to the pair, glaring at the guy as he approached them. He saw the second Bay noticed him; her face paled slightly and she looked uncomfortable.

"What are you doing, Bay? You were supposed to be meeting **me**_!" _ He signed furiously at her.

She still looked kind of uncomfortable and darted quick glances at the guy sitting next to her who was clearly confused.

"And who is this guy?"Emmett continued, pointing. He wanted Bay to reassure him that this other guy was a nobody, a first cousin or a gay guy she'd become friends with.

"Well, Emmett, if you'd maybe given me more of a chance to tell you last night before you rode off on your bike, this is Alex. My boyfriend."

**WHAT?!** Emmett thought he was going to explode. He watched as Bay said something to _Alex_ (Emmett couldn't help thinking the name with a sneer), obviously explaining what they had been signing to each other.

Emmett waved his arm to get Bay's attention. "Your boyfriend?! What are you talking about?! _I'm_ your boyfriend!"

Bay was getting annoyed with him, he could tell. She'd obviously been keeping her anger in check at him because _Alex_ (sneer) was there, but she wasn't going to be able to do it much longer. Emmett wondered if Alex was able to read Bay that well. He scoffed at the thought. Of course not.

"No, Emmett, what you seem to be forgetting is that you and I are over! We've been over since you slept with another girl!" Bay signed, her signs big and tense.

"We're not over," Emmett insisted. "We're not over because you came and met me at our bridge last night…and you came today, even though you came with _him_," he said and curled his lip in disgust as he looked at Alex.

"I came last night because I wanted you to stop texting and emailing me! It was getting annoying! And Alex and I have been planning on coming this race for the past two weeks, ever since he decided to come and visit me after our program ended!" Bay exploded.

"See?! Look, this is how I know you and I aren't over!" Emmett said, convinced.

"See what?!" Bay was exasperated. "What are you talking about? And how come in the 3 ½ months since I've seen you last have you stopped making sense when you talk?!"

Emmett gestured between the two of them. "See this passion! I bet you don't have half or even a quarter of the amount of passion between you and _him!_"

At this point, Alex touched Bay's arm, realizing that something was being said about him. _Gee, what clued you in, man? The fact that I've been pointing to you and glaring at you for the past 5 minutes while arguing with Bay, who is __**my**__ girlfriend and certainly not yours?! _

"He's not the brightest guy, either, is he?" Emmett said to Bay, giving Alex a fake-pitying look.

"What the heck are you talking about? That's not tr- What gives you the right-?!" Bay was furious. "You know what? I'm not doing this with you anymore. We're over, Emmett, and the sooner you realize that, the sooner you'll be able to move on. I already have. With Alex." She grabbed Alex's arm and dragged him elsewhere, clearly furious with Emmett.

Emmett looked after them, daggers shooting out of his eyes at _Alex_ (sneer).

This day had NOT turned out the way he had wanted it to. Not even close.

A.N. Alright, readers, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I'm considering updating with one more chapter, tying in the BK + EB, Bay and Emmett forever thing. What do you think? Review and let me know! For now, though, I'll just say that the story is complete.

*I know in the promo, it looks like he arrives after her, but I changed it for the purposes of this story.


End file.
